Let it fall on Locksley Hall, with rain or hail, or fire or snow;
For the mighty wind arises, roaring seaward, and I go.

30 September 2006

Cooperation and Chicanery

A couple of days ago, I left my flash drive somewhere. Life was hard, but it seems like it will return to normal, although I will always remember the great times my flash drive and I had together.

There's one single reason why we're so inefficient today and that's because we refuse to cooperate. We're too proud and we think we matter too much. I know I didn't stick my flash drive in some crevice or some hidden place. Most likely, it was in plain sight and someone pilfered my information (nothing crucial, though). I'm not sure what kind of conscience you have to take something and not have any regrets on returning it (or make trivial amounts of money off your friends, ah but we leave that for another day...). All you had to do is look through the drive, give it to me, and I would have bought you one, if you needed it.

Ideally, acts of kindness should not be rewarded (well, not by me, anyway), because they're part of human nature. It's in an unwritten code on how men should act. I'm not "grateful" that I'm not a victim of a terrorist attack, because that's how life should be lived, devoid of fear and worry. (This is different from CD-related worry...).

We refuse to cooperate and our costs of living skyrocket. We need security, military, ID cards, anti-spyware software and authentication protocols. The rise in nationalism causes countries to faction, researchers to look away and refuse to share information. How much better could life be if people didn't act so lower-class, so pagan?

Often times, one looks into biology for solutions to real-world problems and this is one of those times. The intricate human machine operates near flawlessly to a point where people can call it 'intelligently designed',which emphasizes what over 4 billion years of evolution has perfected; evolution has brought cooperation into the human body, with every piece cooperating with something else. When cooperation breaks down, a cell destroys itself in a mechanism called apoptosis, or programmed cell death or cell suicide. Many would say that suicide is 'savage', but in order to protect surrounding cells from becoming cancerous, it is a necessary alternative; self-sacrifice for the good of the community.

The marketplace buffoons would say that competition is good for the economy and the customer. What they fail to see is that cooperation works better (also they fail to see that business school teaches you how to whore yourself out, again... another day).

So bring everyone together, weed out the crazies (AND THE NEOCONS), implement eugenics, strict expulsion protocols and world class healthcare and research facilities. Make an interesting utopia filled with perfect people; I want a peaceful place to live in, dammit.